CSCC: 10 steps to ensure security for cloud computing success

The Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC) announced version 3 of its Security for Cloud Computing: 10 Steps to Ensure Success. The 10 steps are meant to be a reference guide for organizations to better analyze the security effects of cloud computing on the organization as a whole.

According to the CSCC, cloud security risks include loss of governance, isolation failure, management interface vulnerabilities, vendor lock-in, service unavailability, business failure of provider, malicious behavior of insiders, and insecure or incomplete data deletion.

Major changes to the guide take into account new worldwide privacy regulations, a focus on different aspects of cloud computing security, more emphasis on security logging and monitoring, and the importance of a formal information governance framework.

“As organizations consider a move to cloud computing, it is important to weigh the potential security benefits and risks involved and set realistic expectations with cloud service providers. The aim of this guide to help enterprise information technology (IT) and business decision makers analyze the security implications of cloud computing on their business,” the organization wrote in a post.

Step two: Audit operational and business processes. Audits should leverage an established standard, be carried out by skilled staff, and be done as part of a formal certification process, according to the CSCC.

Step three: Manage people, roles and identities. “Customers must ensure that the cloud service provider has processes and functionality that govern who has access to the customer’s data and applications. Conversely, cloud service providers must allow the customer to assign and manage the roles and associated levels of authorization for each of their users in accordance with their security policies, and apply the principle of least privilege. These roles and authorization rights are applied on a per-resource, service or application basis,” the CSCC wrote.

Step four: Ensure proper protection of data and information. According to the authors, “data protection is a component of enterprise risk management.” Protecting data is crucial in terms of risk management.

Step five: Enforce privacy policies. “Enterprises are responsible for defining policies to address privacy concerns and raise awareness of data protection within their organization. They are also responsible for ensuring that their cloud service providers adhere to the defined privacy policies. Thus, customers have an ongoing obligation to monitor their provider’s compliance with customer policies. This includes an audit program covering all aspects of the privacy policies, including methods of ensuring that corrective actions will take place,” the council wrote.

Stepsix: Assess the security provisions for cloud applications.The authors say that “organizations must apply the same diligence to application security in the cloud as in a traditional IT environment.” The responsibilities differ depending on the deployment model. For example, in IaaS, the customer is responsible for most security components. In Platform-as-a-Service the provider is responsible for securing the operating system while the customer is responsible for application security. For Software-as-a-Service, the provider provides application security, while the customer is responsible for understanding things such as data encryption standards, audit capabilities, and SLAs.

Stepseven: Ensure cloud networks and connections are secure. The authors suggest that customers should have assurance on a provider’s internal and external network security.

Step nine: Manage security terms in the cloud service agreement. “Since cloud computing typically involves at least two organizations – customer and provider, the respective security responsibilities of each party must be made clear. This is typically done by means of a cloud service agreement (CSA), which specifies the services provided and the terms of the contract between the customer and the provider,” according to the council.

Step ten: Understand the security requirements of the exit process. Customer data should not remain with the provider after the exit process. The provider should be forced to cleanse log and audit data, though in some jurisdictions this isn’t possible because retention of records might be required by law.

“The CSCC has created a practical guide to help those with information security expertise as well as those that don’t have domain expertise,” said Ryan Kean, senior director of enterprise architecture for The Kroger Company. “This work will help organizations step through ten areas to be cognizant of when evaluating cloud providers. The end effect is helping companies avoid decisions that put their data and service at risk.”

Article Tags

About Jenna Sargent

Jenna Sargent is an Online and Social Media Editor for SD Times. She covers Agile, ALM, Java, microservices/containers, testing/QA, application performance monitoring/management, and security. Follow her on Twitter at @jsargey!